diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
index 2fbd7876594..2ed93b150db 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -442,6 +442,8 @@ Release 0.23.5 - UNRELEASED
 
     MAPREDUCE-4266. remove Ant remnants from MR (tgraves via bobby)
 
+    MAPREDUCE-4666. JVM metrics for history server (jlowe via jeagles)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
   BUG FIXES
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-hs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/v2/hs/JobHistoryServer.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-hs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/v2/hs/JobHistoryServer.java
index 1eb62b05671..94d25f60f8b 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-hs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/v2/hs/JobHistoryServer.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-hs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/v2/hs/JobHistoryServer.java
@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapred.JobConf;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.MRConfig;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.v2.jobhistory.JHAdminConfig;
+import org.apache.hadoop.metrics2.lib.DefaultMetricsSystem;
+import org.apache.hadoop.metrics2.source.JvmMetrics;
 import org.apache.hadoop.security.SecurityUtil;
 import org.apache.hadoop.util.ShutdownHookManager;
 import org.apache.hadoop.util.StringUtils;
@@ -106,6 +108,8 @@ public class JobHistoryServer extends CompositeService {
 
   @Override
   public void start() {
+    DefaultMetricsSystem.initialize("JobHistoryServer");
+    JvmMetrics.initSingleton("JobHistoryServer", null);
     try {
       jhsDTSecretManager.startThreads();
     } catch(IOException io) {
@@ -118,6 +122,7 @@ public class JobHistoryServer extends CompositeService {
   @Override
   public void stop() {
     jhsDTSecretManager.stopThreads();
+    DefaultMetricsSystem.shutdown();
     super.stop();
   }